FLAMINGELL

Four white hot games to save Leeds, can Big Sam REALLY pull this one out of the fire?

SAM ALLARDYCE has taken on the toughest challenge of his career – saving Leeds from relegation.

And if he can pull off another Premier League great escape, it might just be his greatest achievement of all.

Fireman Sam has just four games to stop Leeds’s season from going up in flames.

First up is the small matter of a trip to the Etihad to face treblechasing Manchester City.

That is followed by the visit of goal-crazy Newcastle, who have won eight of their last nine games. Leeds then travel to West Ham, where fans never took to him when he was manager.

And Leeds, thrashed by Bournemouth at the weekend (above), will finish their woeful season at home to Tottenham, who are still looking to qualify for Europe and who have one of the most lethal strikers in world football in the shape of England captain Harry Kane.

Just to pile more pressure on Allardyce, he will be walking into a fractured dressing room which has tasted victory just once in seven matches. But if one man can mastermind survival, it has to be Big Sam.

The former England, Everton and Newcastle manager has proven a master of keeping teams in the Premier League.

Back in 2009 he took charge of a Blackburn side sitting second from bottom and managed to secure seven wins to lead them to an impressive 15th.

Allardyce did a similar job at Sunderland in 2015-16 to keep them in the top flight.

And he was at it again the following season with Crystal Palace, winning eight of 21 games to lift them from 17th to 14th.

Allardyce, who against the odds kept Bolton up year after year in the Noughties, retired following his spell at Palace.

But he couldn’t resists the drug of football when Everton came calling in 2017 as their season threatened to implode.

The Merseyside club were 13th when Allardyce breezed into Goodison Park and engineered an unbeaten six-game run to kick off his era.

The Toffees finished that campaign in a respectable eighth spot. Just what would their fans give to be in a similar position of strength now?

But one thing Allardyce cannot escape is the fact there will be immense pressure on him to succeed at Leeds because the stakes have never been higher.

The club’s supporters are renowned for turning on their own players at Elland Road when things don’t go to plan.

Those same supporters who still miss the fantasy football played under former boss Marcelo Bielsa are now bracing themselves for the more direct style Allardyce is famous for.

And throw into the mix the fact that, should Leeds plummet into the Championship, the valuation of the club to prospective new outright owners (the San Francisco 49ers) would drop more than £100million and cost chairman Andrea Radrizzani a potential fortune.

Allardyce is no stranger to the role of white knight. But rarely has he ridden into a storm as bad as the one raging around Elland Road right now.

Leeds are currently above the drop zone, albeit on goal difference only, but bookies can’t see them staying up. The Yorkshire side are 8-15 to go down, with Everton 8-13 and Nottingham Forest 8-11. Leicester, currently 16th, are quoted around the 2-1 mark.